About Dreams

Research have showed that people who are deprived from entering the dream phase of sleep or the REM stage, exhibit symptoms of irritability and anxiety. In one dream study, volunteers are woken up right before they enter into the dream state. Then they are allowed to fall back to sleep. Again, right before they enter REM sleep, they are awaken. This continues on through the night. The volunteers sleep the same amount of time as they normally do. The next day, these volunteers go about their day and observed to be disoriented, depressed, crabby, and quick tempered. There is a general impairment in their daily functioning. Some eat more than usual. As this study continues on through several nights, subjects become more and more agitated. It is found that deprivation of REM sleep causes over-sensitivity, lack of concentration and memory loss.

This study shows the importance of dreaming and its role in your well-being and health. Some researchers believe that dreams help you to tackle stress. Dreaming is a necessity and helps to recharge the mind and revitalize the body.

Even the minutest element in your dream is important and must be considered when analyzing your dreams. Each symbol represents a feeling, a mood, a memory or something from your unconscious. Look closely at the characters, animals, objects, places, emotions, and even color and numbers that are depicted in your dreams. Even the most trivial symbol can be significant.

IN other words, dreaming is in fact a universal principle to help our life flow freely and without stress. When we dream deep down in our heart we send messages out to the universe, which will structure our future.

Therefore before you plan your next project take a few seconds and look inside yourself. Deep down in your heart and see what dreams are there, that you have been ignoring or pushing down?

Instead of pushing these away start to look at them with your awareness start to put your attention on them and watch your whole future unfold before your very eyes.

This is different to dreaming at night in your head. This is dreaming with your feeling, dreaming with your heart. It is a very creative process and will in effect line your energies up with that of the entire universe: So that every thought, word and action of yours will be in tune with the universe, and it will be supported by the universe.

This is a process, which will help you live a life free from stress and allow your natural abundance to flow out from you in all directions.

We need to dream regularly as a vital release for our emotions, a leading psychologist says, like yoga for the soul.It has become one of the most cherished neuroses of Western culture that we exist in a state of acute sleep deprivation, a dearth to which legions of casual complaints and magazine headlines testify. Nevertheless, the psychologist and sleep guru Rubin Naiman is equally disturbed by another deficit: namely, that 21st-century society is undergoing an epidemic of dreamlessness.

“An essential function of dreaming is psychological stretching, a kind of yoga for the soul: gently expanding, releasing, opening, and softening.” Like stretching a muscle, a dream can release emotional pain, tightness from earlier in the day – or even hurt from childhood. Dreaming provides “a poetic cushion” for our sharply literal lives, he says.

Modern lifestyles interfere with healthy dreaming. Overexposure to light at night suppresses melatonin and thus dreaming.

Many commonly used medications, including sleeping pills, also restrict our ability to dream, or the REM [rapid eye movement] sleep that yields it. Sleep apnoea, usually associated with snoring, can significantly diminish dreaming too. “And, last, but certainly not least,” Dr Naiman says, “we live in a world where the dream has become devalued. ‘Forget it,’ we say to a loved one who has a nightmare, it’s just a dream’.”

The majority of dreams flit by in episodes of between five and 20 minutes, four or five times a night. Nevertheless, during an average life span, this nightly couple of hours will add up to a good six years enmeshed in fantasy. From the 1940s to 1985 the psychologist Calvin S. Hall collated more than 50,000 dream narratives at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio. He argued that sleepers the world over conjure the same sort of visions. Universal motifs include: education, being chased, an inability to move, tardiness, nudity and humiliation, flyings, shedding of teeth, death, falling in love with or having intercourse with random individuals, car accidents and being accused of a crime.

Anxiety is the most common emotion experienced and negative sentiments tend to be more prevalent (or better recalled). America ranks the highest among industrialised nations for aggression in dreams, while sexual themes occur about a tenth of the time.

Theories about the function of dreams differ radically from the notion that they are Nature’s own form of psychotherapy to their being merely the brain’s mode of dejunking. Dr Naiman’s take is a fusion of the practical and the poetic. “Dreaming plays a critical role in learning and the formation of certain kinds of memory. It also helps us to heal from emotional losses.

“Much of the depression explosion we witness today is associated with an actual loss of dreams,” he says. If we cannot sleep on it, so the evidence suggests, the “it” in question may threaten to overwhelm us.

How might such a deficit be rectified? Better sleep as a whole will conjure better dreams. Thus, the dreamless are advised to avail themselves of the potions born of Dr Naiman’s collaboration with Origins, the natural skincare company: products designed to get us back to what he terms “deep-green sleep”, that is, chemical-free repose in a nurturing environment.

Beyond this, it may not be too complicated. “The simple act of directing our attention back towards our dreams will encourage them to come out of hiding,” he says. Once they begin to flow, make a note of them and share them. “The bottom line is about befriending our dreams and remaining open to all they bring.”

Another reason that we turn away from dreams is that so many of them are, in fact, “bad”. One study suggests that about two thirds of the emotional content of our dreams is negative. But they are bad only when viewed from a waking perspective. “We are a wake-centric culture,” he says. “We presume that waking consciousness is it: the gold standard for our experiences, happiness, sanity.”

He says that youngsters should be encouraged to talk about their dreams. “So many learn that dreams are of little consequence in the adult world … so, although they may experience them vividly, they tend to avoid discussing them and lose interest.” Parents, he says, should ask their children about their dreams, as well as share their own.

So what he advocates is an embrace of deep-green dreaming? “Why not? Healthy dreaming and healthy sleep are reciprocal. I dream best in deep-green forests.”

Limit your exposure to artificial light

This includes television screens, because the blue component restricts melatonin and thus dreaming. Invest in some blue light-eliminating bulbs and glasses (www.lowblue lights.com) or opt for candlelight.

Avoid excess alcohol and dream-suppressing medications

But you must treat conditions such as sleep apnoea that may interfere with dreaming. Melatonin, which requires a prescription in the UK, is a safe way to rekindle dreaming.

Look at dreaming as a form of psychological stretching.

Keep a dream journal and discuss your dreams with your family and friends. Encourage children not to feel inhibited about sharing their nocturnal adventures.

Try to foster an awareness that you are dreaming when it’s happening

This is especially important when it comes to nightmares. Yield to the message of a nightmare rather than becoming embroiled in it.

Dreams are important to the individual dreaming them. Each person dreams his own dreams. Dreams are important, but not so important that we need to follow them too rigidly or strictly literately.

Dreams are important in relation to our life. Our life is important too, but not just in relation to our dreams. We are bigger than our dreams, which although important, are not all that we are. Dreams come and go, but the reality of who we are lasts forever.

Dreams are important to love. We can learn to love from our dreams. Everything starts as a dream, except for love which lives on forever. Dreams interpret our lives for us, but we need our lives to interpret our dreams.

Our lives are colored by our dreams, to paraphrase an old ”Beatles” song called, ”Tomorrow Never Knows,” written in 1966.

The words I have changed were these words: ”Listen to the color of your dreams.”

Every dream is important, even if we do not remember it either in full or even in part.

Subconscious & Conscious mind

The subconscious mind:

Think of the subconscious mind as the storage room of everything that is currently not in your conscious mind; it stores all your previous life experiences, your belief system, your memories, you skills, all situations you’ve been through, and all images you’ve ever seen. The best way to understand the subconscious mind is through the example of someone who’s just started to learn how to drive. At the beginning, he wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation with anyone while driving as he would be focusing on the different moves involved; that’s because he’s still using his conscious mind to drive.

The subconscious mind; your Autopilot!

A few weeks later, the driving process comes to him automatically, without having to do any thinking; he’d even start using his cell phone or talk to his friends as he drives. This on account of the fact that the driving information or process has been transferred to his subconscious mind and so the conscious mind is free to function on something else, like talking or using his cell phone.

The subconscious mind is responsible for the automatically triggered feelings and emotions that you suddenly experience upon facing a new situation. Let’s consider the example of you giving apresentation all fear and anxiety feelings are then launched and controlled by the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is, on the other hand, responsible for logic, thought and calculations (all actions that are performed under your complete control); the subconscious mind also controls other functions in your body like breathing and heart beats.

Another good example that can help you better understand the subconscious mind is the process of breathing. Before you started reading the previous line, your breathing was controlled by your subconscious. I want you now to try and control your breathing for one minute. You will, of course, be able to do so. This time, it was the conscious mind controlling your breathing, but when you let go of your focus, you are said to be handing the task over to your subconscious mind.

How you can program your subconscious mind:

When the information about driving is stored into your subconscious, it’s stored as a program. Think of your mind as a computer and the driving information as software that can be run automatically whenever needed. The same goes for lots of other activities and emotions. Think of the case of someone shouting at you, the installed program of anger is launched and the result is a behavior you may end up regretting later. Through programming the subconscious mind with new programs, you can fix many problems in your personality. Just make sure that your autopilot is capable of running your system without ruining your life or causing you any problems.

Programming your subconscious can be done through hypnosis. The subconscious mind learns by repetition and not by logic, that is why you can convince someone to believe in something by repeating your argument again and again rather than using logic. For more information on this topic see the guide to the psychology of convincing

Rules of the subconscious mind:

In order to best use the power of your subconscious mind, you must first know how the subconscious mind works. The subconscious mind is governed by many rules; learning about those rules will allow you to make the best use out of your subconscious mind with the least effort. Below is a link that contains all the information you need to know about the rules of the subconscious mind.

Ego defense mechanisms:

Just like your body has got its defenses against physical wounds and injuries, your subconscious mind has got its defenses against emotional shocks and wounds. These are called ego defense mechanisms or unconscious defense mechanisms. The ego defense mechanisms’ main function is to protect your well-being and to help you overcome emotional shocks.

The subconscious mind and forgetting about someone

The main reason people stay broken after breakups is that they have false ideas stored in their subconscious minds about relationships. In my book, how to get over anyone in few days, i described how can getting rid of beliefs like “the one” or “the soul mate” help you forget about anybody in few days.

As soon as someone gets rid of these beliefs he starts to realize that he can one day find another person who replaces the one who left him, and so recovery happens.

Using your conscious and subconscious mind together:

As you can see, the conscious and the subconscious parts of the mind form a team. The first handles some tasks then assigns them to the second, the second after that sends feedback and messages about the task done in the form of emotions to the first. . Emotions are no more than messages sent by your subconscious mind in order to alert you of something. By learning how to make the best use of the cooperation between your conscious and subconscious mind, your life skills will improve and you will have much more control over your emotions

Relation of dreams with Sub-conscious dreams.

Do you know that your dreams and subconscious mind can predict many things as well as going deep into the past? I was thinking about something I have always used and they are dream and the subconscious level to decide. So how about using dreams to guess the lotto winning numbers? Or even using dreams to take a decision?

First and foremost, I want this to be clear. We are not talking of [wikipop] clairvoyance[/wikipop]or any magical pseudo belief here. We are talking about dreaming, which is a natural part of our lives. Every time someone sleep, he dreams. Scientifically explained, dreams are waves or signals that the brain generates and manipulate. Dreams are often relative to life happenings and environment.

For example, it is a fact that someone who is blind since birth do not dream like a normal person. However, people who became blind later in their lifetime do dream even after becoming blind. However their dreams will often be based on what they saw before becoming blind. Dreams are images or a movie as many will say however there is another aspect which we call the subconscious and this is what I want to talk to you about.

Dreams and the Subconscious Mind

“You cannot control your dreams”. Are you sure? I will not agree with you on this. You cannot control what happen in your dream but you can control your dream overall idea. Many people say that if you think about a haunted house just before sleeping you will dream of it. It is false!

However try thinking about a trip with your friend to a haunted house about 2 hours before sleeping or while having dinner and be sure to dream about it somehow! However this is not always the case. To understand dreams, let’s take your brain as a sort of computer which does not require human intervention to do defragmentation of data and software maintenance.

When you sleep at night, there are many functions involving your memory and things that you learned that occurs. Your dreams are abstract scenes of what your brain is processing or re-ordering. It is like someone who is doing some clean up and reorganizing work in a big library by putting the books on their respective shelves. Meanwhile while you sleep you see dreams. However dreams are never to the point.

Dreams are abstract pictures or scenes that you see. Here come your subconscious at play. Ever felt a strange feeling something bad is going to happen? That was your subconscious mind. Have you ever been worried about someone thinking what he/she thinks about you and then somehow find the answer in a very abstract way in your dreams? That was your subconscious mind.

The subconscious is nothing magic or supernatural. It is just something every animal have. This is us! Some people are used to it and often use it while the majority of others are so involved in our modern technological world that it does not seem to exist anymore.

Once, someone (yes someone) wanted to know if it was the end. He used to think a lot if it was the end of it. Somehow after two days of wondering, he dreamt that he was running after that bus (Forget it!) and it kept going faster than him. Finally he reached the graveyard and he was digging up the graves looking for something. There were only the skeletons.

No he didn’t watch any horror movie that night. It was the subconscious mind only giving him the answer that his mind could not answer while he was in this technological world.

The dream above can make you think he was looking for some dead people right? No he wasn’t. The bus was just representing a person. The road was just life. The graveyard was just stubbornness and the skeletons were there to say It Was Over! The dream only told that he was digging up memories and that the reality no more existed. Some weeks later he confirmed it.

Since I am a kid I always tried to remember what I dream. I used to tell my dreams to my mom or late-grand mom every day. My Grand mom was someone who would often understand what we (i.e. me or mom or even my uncle) would never understand. I think I inherited this weird way of trying to map my dreams to my life from her. (I used to live with her for some years and she would always try to tell me what my dreams were in a story like way).

What I want to say is that at many point in life you do not have an answer to a question. However all questions have answers. Some are just hard to solve while others are obvious. Your subconscious mind on the other hand know everything (relative to what you lived). If you are thinking if this is magic, then no!

There is no magic. This is analogous to AI in computer. With some logic, the computer can predict what is to happen if certain things occurred. The brain is the most amazing archive of memories and facts. As you live, there are many things that your subconscious mind store but you do not even notice it. You cannot call your subconscious mind voluntarily to help you, however when you are experiencing REM during your dream, it is when your subconscious mind is most active.

In fact it is always active but you only feel it when all your other mind states are at a lower level. That is sleep. Tonight about 2 hours before going to sleep, try thinking about something you have lost during the day and can’t find. Think about it and tell yourself this is important and you need to find it. Your subconscious mind already know where you lost it. How?

When you lost that thing, your subconscious mind took note of where you left it. However your normal brain state is not at the level to remember that since there are far too many things to process while you are awake. At night as you sleep, your subconscious mind takes over and while the brain reworks on what you did today and what you lost and so on, your subconscious mind will tell you where it is.

However note that the subconscious never show you things as in real life. That is why I said dreams are abstract movies. A door in your dream can mean an entrance, or an exit or even you lost it while entering somewhere. If the door is red, it can even mean that the lost thing is near a red object. This is the difficult part, that is to understand your dreams.

Now dreams can also predict far future events. Your brain does not predict it as it was something predefined. Rather your future is only a result of your past and present. I often do things and suddenly feel like I have done this thing or say this thing exactly as it is to the person in front of me at the same place before. Once I was with Priscus at Ebene Way eating and suddenly I felt like this happened before. That was in a very brief scene in a dream which may have been months ago when I first met her.

And to make it funny, did you ever dream of your next day exam questions? Well I did it once. It was for the Biology Exam in Form 5 (2003) – I was thinking of biology all day long and even at night. That night I dreamed of some questions and I was in a room doing the exam. Well I didn’t get all questions I dreamed about, but there was 2 similar questions (Not the same but on exactly same concept and diagrams). The next day I found myself laughing at the paper in the exam room.

To really make conclusions out of your dreams depends largely on your mind state. A tired person is less likely to even remember his dreams. Meditation (as an exercise and NOT for religion!) is a great way to calm your mind and better understand your life and future. When I say meditation i don’t mean like those in the Bollywood movies where you wear a cheap orange thing and sit under a tree lol! Meditation is the word and it simply mean to calm your mind and think or better do not think.

When you sleep you do think. You can hear your subconscious mind when you do no think only. Oh and by the way, do try it for the Mauritius Lotto Game. Who knows, maybe you can be the winner If you dream of number 3, do know it will not be 3 but.. It can be anything related to 3. It can be 12 or even 21 because when your brain look at 12 it sees 12 but for your subconscious mind 12 can be meaning 1 plus 2 equal 3 from a far memory from kindergarten.

Woo! Long post. Been a long time I have not been blogging these typical IC origin-like long posts Anyway I stop it here since I am feeling hungry. Think about what I just said.

Dreams come from your soul and are intended to help you progress along your life path. In sleep the focus of the physical world and the body is on hold and during this period your soul has a perfect opportunity to dialogue with your conscious mind… or so it would appear. The problem here is that the subconscious never sleeps. Think of the subconscious like a faithful dog always on guard to protect its master. Your soul asks the conscious mind to make a change to some aspect of functioning in order to avoid a particular undesirable outcome. Let’s take a very common example. Say your soul wants you to be less analytical / rational in your approach to life and to incorporate intuition / feelings into the decision making process. It dispatches a dream for this purpose. Ideally the dream is received and your conscious mind accepts the direction of your soul and begins a program to change in this direction. The more likely outcome, however, is that your subconscious mind asserts itself in the dream and provides all sorts of reasons why this change should be avoided. Due to this, the message / request in the dream is effectively spoiled.

Why does this happen? What gain does the subconscious make from this? The simple answer is that there is no gain but the subconscious still retains control in the area which was being addressed. The subconscious mind is being helpful as far as it is concerned and sees the reasons it provides for avoiding the change as valid. Drawing on your personal experience as evidence it will tell you “When you are open to your feelings you are open to being hurt, rejected and ignored. You’ll end up sad and depressed.” In this way it appears to protect you from reliving pain from the past.

The price for this protection is very high. Life is about increasing your awareness. Awareness is gained directly through eliminating the control the subconscious mind has in areas of your life. Awareness cannot be transferred intellectually. You cannot read something and become aware. However, you can read and then be more prepared to accept opportunities to eliminate subconscious control when they present themselves.

A very simple example from my life is how closed minded I was to any ideas outside the sphere of science. I immediately classed as idiot anyone who spoke of things beyond the physical. I was so sure of my conviction that I was unaware that my subconscious mind was in control – ‘protecting me’. As long as I continued with that attitude I learned nothing. I was very fortunate to have been put in a position where I faced my fears head on. At the time I did not welcome it and in fact feared for my life. I didn’t want to see spirit people walking around but there they were! I was so fearful of the very thing that I had proclaimed did not exist. Through my experiences I learned much about spirits and how my fear of them had no basis in fact. From spirits I have learned much about what I am – what we are. From childhood I always had a fear of the dark and slept with some light on in the room – even though I didn’t believe anything was in the room with me. Ironically, since seeing spirits I now sleep with the light off and am comforted by the fact that they are there. The experience helped me to open my mind.

Most of us allow our subconscious free reign in many areas of our lives. Life shows us where these areas lie and helps us weed out that control. Our dreams support this endeavor by showing the causes and effects of our subconscious conditioning. Typically dreams show what event first caused us to act in a particular way. Then they show how we still re-act today due to the ongoing effects of that event. Lastly they show us how to change for the better. Dreams often bring us back to childhood as the time of our conditioning. As children we take on board everything about our parents. We see them as infallible and wanting to be so much like them we adopt their ways of behaving – both good and bad. At appropriate times in our lives our dreams select a negative aspect of our conditioning and ask us to eliminate it – thus reducing the control of the subconscious and increasing our awareness. In this way we are helped to achieve our life purpose.

Conscious mind

Consciousness is variously defined as subjective experience, awareness, the ability to experience “feeling”, wakefulness, the understanding of the concept “self”, or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena. Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, philosophers note (e.g. John Searle in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy):

“Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives.”

Whoever makes us, makes our dreams. Call our source whatever you like, it is also the source of our dreams. For that reason there is no limit to what we can learn from our dreams; the list of dream-inspired art, inventions, and spiritual guidance is endless. One thread in the tapestry of dreams tracks our heritage and family history. We each contain the best gifts and worst faults of our “biological team” as part of our unconscious starting point in life. Scientists pass along their best discoveries, failed experiments and unresolved dilemmas in technical journals. Families bequeath this same information through biology instead of books.

Barbara had a dream called “Charlie-Brave Boy” in which a puppy named Charlie returned to her and she “took it up into her arms” feeling filled with love. This marked the return of a lost part of her mind-body energy that disappeared during a trauma shortly after her birth. While her father, a naval officer, held his beloved infant in his arms a doctor used dry ice to burn a large birthmark from her upper arm. The burning or “singeing” of the skin (which appeared in the dream as people “singing” in church) and the smell of her burning flesh (in the dream she was surrounded by “pews”) activated traumas he had acquired in witnessing the violent death and burning flesh of his sailors during enemy attacks. He passed out cold. You might have too.

In primal cultures around the world, traditional shamans travel to the invisible realms, often using the drum beat as the vehicle of vibratory travel, to retrieve lost parts of a person’s soul. Dreams perform this function for all of us, whenever we are ready for the reintegration. The consciousness that Barbara had lost during this traumatic medical procedure returned to her six decades later in the form of a puppy in the present dream. She felt great love (for her own prodigal self now returning) and while the energy returned and she “took it up into her arms,” she cradled her dream puppy in those same arms. At the very moment that Barbara was initially being traumatized as an infant–her father’s already-existing war trauma was being re-activated. The old shamans would say soul fragments of both made the journey together to the invisible realms.

The next time Barbara’s father was singed was at his own cremation only a handful of years later. Barbara witnessed the spreading of his ashes from a rooftop and suffered a second indigestible, or traumatic, experience in her young life. Both father-linked traumas were being healed by the same modern dream. “Every dream comes in the interest of health and wholeness” says dream worker Jeremy Taylor.

But were those the only traumas involved? Barbara’s family line has included naval captains and war heroes for many generations. This same dream triggered her memory (or association) of a beloved family story: her great grandfather was once taken too ill to captain his own ship through a terrible storm, so he put his first mate in charge. The interim captain, had to lash Barbara’s willful-child of a grandmother to the mast to keep her from falling overboard while he guided the ship through troubled waters. The story lived on since grandmother remained “a real piece of work,” (in Barbara’s words) and quite a handful all her life; the grandchildren cherished this image of grandma lashed to the mast.

Dream symbols are multidimensional vessels of condensed meaning; each image carries many layers of meaning. This story from Barbara’s outer life–which can also be interpreted as if a “waking dream”– evokes ancient mythic themes and also hints at the terror and trauma that may have continued for many generations within this one family… possibly part of why grandma was such a handful. The mythic component in this story re-images Ulysses having himself lashed to the mast so he could hear the Sirens’ call but be restrained from being able to follow it. His crew, with wax in their ears navigated past the danger without his help.

This is essentially what trauma does for us. Indigestible or destabilizing experience which would misdirect and endanger the ship of the psyche, can be lashed to the mast of the unconscious where it can no longer directly influence our waking choices and behavior. This is done by the psyche at considerable cost, as losing the guidance of a ship’s captain suggests, but it helps us avoid madness from hearing our own Sirens’ call.

Barbara’s father experienced a reactivation of his existing war-time trauma while Barbara was receiving her first medical trauma in his arms. Like the passing of a baton in a relay race, the undigested burdens of the father may be passed to the next generation. How many generations has this baton been passed within this one family? History, said Shakespeare, is the story of the death of fathers. What ancient forces still operate beneath our “modern” consciousness?

I once worked with a delightful, educated, mother of three who suffered terrible waves of negative thoughts and images. At that time I was practicing mind/body treatments that involved two or three of my staff palm-healing the client (akin to Reike or Therapeutic Touch) while we all worked on their dream’s interpretation. Much of everyone’s unconscious content is mapped across the physical body and the results of this mind/body double intervention were as dramatic in this case as in most others. Almost invariably, the client attained profound insights and also got up from the massage table looking genuinely transformed, enriched and tranquil. We even installed a mirror so clients could witness the visible transformation in themselves. In this case, the results were the same, except, each session she returned buzzing with invisible energies and dark thoughts. We accelerated to two and then, briefly, three sessions a week with no resolution.

Her condition was so atypical that I finally asked her if there was some terrible secret we really ought to know about. Did she have a drug or drinking problem? Was she engaging in some dangerous or high stress activity that could account for her uniquely rapid recurrence of symptoms? Since she knew of no such source of stress and negativity, I asked her to request a dream to explore the topic. The next session she brought the following dream:

“I am the caretaker of an old stone church (she was an actively religious person). As I am weeding the lawn things begin looking better and better. However, when I begin watering the flower beds next to the building the water washes away the earth to reveal a growing pit or cavern which has been concealing a 14th century grave yard with corpses strewn all about.”

We lowered the intensity and frequency of the sessions lest the energy flow of the dream work plus group palm healing (the water in the dream that helps most people to flower?) too rapidly unearth ancient destructive forces. We proceeded with a measured “weeding” of her present life issues and carefully avoided digging up too many old skeletons: her treatment progressed much more successfully.

There are many possible interpretations for any dream, many of which simultaneously true. If you believe in reincarnation, you might conclude that she had a past life issue and depth work was permeating a psychic boundary that was the interface between two lives of a single soul. Alternatively, you might wonder if she was still wrestling with some dark issues and “death energies” that had originated in the 14th century. Was this the result of her personal family inheritance, passed down through so many generations? Or was her current church involvement touching upon some ancient collective shadow accruing to the institution?

Conscious Awareness & the Unconscious Mind

The human brain is functionally lateralized and hierarchically organized such that four mental systems are localized one on top of the other, and side by side.

Whereas the brainstem mediates the more reflexive and rudimentary aspects of vegetative and motor functioning including breathing, heart rate, the sleep-wake cycle and arousal, the limbic system and each half of the brain have developed their own unique strategies for perceiving, processing, and expressing information, as well as specialized neuroanatomical interconnections that assist in mediating these functions (Joseph, 1982, 1986b, 1988ab, 1992ab, 1998, 2000, 2001). In humans, the neocortical mantle of the right and left hemisphere have come to sub serve conscious awareness, including those aspects of consciousness associated with language and thought, and those components of non-verbal and social emotional intuitive awareness associated with the unconscious mind. By contrast, and as is the case with all “higher” animals, the limbic system mediates the more unconscious aspects of social-emotional and personal awareness, including those aspects of psychic functioning associated with what Jung referred to as the collective unconscious.

Hence, the mind and brain are hierarchically organized, the limbic system situated above the brainstem, and the cerebral hemispheres being organized such that two potentially independent mental systems coexist, literally side by side.

LEFT HEMISPHERE OVERVIEW: Language & Consciousness

As is now well established, the expressive and receptive aspects of speech and language, linguistic and verbal thought, mathematical and analytical reasoning, as well as the temporal-sequential and rhythmical aspects of consciousness, are associated with the functional integrity of the left half of the brain in the majority of the population.

As is generally well known, within the neocortical surface of the left hemisphere there is one area that largely controls the capacity to speak, and another region that mediates the ability to understand speech (Frost, et al., 1999; Goodglass & Kaplan, 1999; Heiss, et al., 1999; Pujol, et al., 1999). Specifically, Broca’s expressive speech area is located along the left frontal convexity, whereas Wernicke’s receptive speech area is found within the superior temporal lobe and becomes coextensive with the inferior parietal lobule.

If Broca’s area were severely damaged, the ability to speak would become severely impaired, although the patient would still be able to sing, swear and pray–singing, swearing and praying being mediated by the undamaged right hemisphere.

If Wernicke’s receptive speech area were damaged, the ability to comprehend spoken and written language would be abolished.

Linking Broca’s with Wernicke’s area is the inferior parietal lobule and a thick band of fibers: the arcuate fasciculus. These areas interact to form a “language axis” and sub serve those aspects of consciousness associated with language and thinking in words. The left hemisphere, therefore, is associated with what has classically been referred to as the conscious mind –though it must be stressed that this relationship only refers to those aspects of consciousness dependent on words and language.

THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE & UNCONSCIOUS SOCIAL EMOTONAL AWARENESS

The right cerebral hemisphere is associated with visual spatial, non-verbal and emotional aspects of conscious awareness, including the emotional aspects of language and memory. That is, whereas the left hemisphere speaks and comprehends words and sentences and stores verbal memories, the right hemisphere vocalizes and comprehends emotional and melodic sounds and stores and recalls visual and emotional memories.

Hence, if someone were to say: “Do you want to go outside?” although the left hemisphere can speak and comprehend the words spoken, it is the right hemisphere which determines what the sentence means: If, for example, you are being threatened with a punch in the nose.

Hence, just as the left frontal and left regions mediates the expression and comprehension of the denotative aspects of speech, tissues in the right frontal and right temporal lobe mediates the expression and reception of the emotional and melodic aspects of speech; and these areas are interconnected by the corpus callosum.

In part, it is believed that the right hemisphere dominance over emotional functioning is due to more extensive interconnections with the limbic system (Joseph, 1982, 1988a). The limbic system, in fact, appears to be functionally and structurally lateralized. For example, the appear to be more axonal connections between the neocortex of the right hemisphere and subcortical structures as the white matter connections are more extensive. The neocortex of the right hemisphere is also about 4% greater in size as compared to the left, the right amygdala is significantly (9%) larger than the left (Caviness, et al., 1997), whereas the left amygdala contains heavier concentrations of dopamine (Bradbury, Costall, Domeney, & Naylor, 1985; Stevens, 1992).

As originally proposed by Joseph (1982), over the course of evolution and development, limbic social-emotional functions have come to be hierarchically subserved by the right cerebrum due in part to the initial earlier maturation of the non-motor portions of the right cerebral neocortex and due to limbic laterality (Joseph, 1982, 1988a).

Thus, the right hemisphere has also come to dominate and to hierarchically process and express the purely emotional aspects of language, i.e. limbic language, which is why the right cerebrum is also dominate in regard to the expression and comprehension of emotional speech.

RIGHT HEMISPHERE MENTAL FUNCTIONING: THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

That both halves of the brain are capable of supporting to independent mental domains, and that the right and left hemisphere subserve distinct realms of conscious awareness has been well demonstrated. This is evident in every day life, and is most dramatically evident when the axonal pathways linking the right and left hemisphere have been surgically destroyed. That is, the mental systems of the right and left hemisphere will begin to act independently and not always cooperatively.

As described by Nobel Lauriate Roger Sperry (1966, p. 299), “Everything we have seen indicates that the surgery has left these people with two separate minds, that is, two separate spheres of consciousness. What is experienced in the right hemisphere seems to lie entirely outside the realm of awareness of the left hemisphere. This mental division has been demonstrated in regard to perception, cognition, volition, learning and memory.”

For example, when split-brain patients are tactually stimulated on the left side of the body, their left hemispheres demonstrate marked neglect when verbal responses are required, they are unable to name objects placed in the left hand, and they fail to report the presence of a moving or stationary stimulus in the left half of their visual fields (Bogen, 1979; Gazzaniga & LeDoux, 1978; Joseph, 1988b; Levy, 1974, 1983; Seymour et al. 1994; Sperry, 1982). They (i.e., their left hemisphere’s) cannot verbally describe odors, pictures or auditory stimuli tachistoscopically or dichotically presented to the right cerebrum, and have extreme difficulty explaining why the left half of their bodies responds or behaves in a particular purposeful manner (such as when the right brain is selectively given a command).

In addition, they demonstrate marked difficulties in naming incomplete figures (and thus forming visual closure), as well as a reduced ability to name and identify nonlinguistic and environmental sounds (Joseph, 1986b, 1988b)–capacities associated with the functional integrity of the right hemisphere.

However, by raising their left hand (which is controlled by the right half of the cerebrum) the disconnected right hemisphere is able to indicate when the patient is tactually or visually stimulated on the left side. When tachistoscopically presented with words to the left of visual midline, although unable to name them, when offered mutiple visual choices in full field their right hemispheres are usually able to point correctly with the left hand to the word viewed.

In this regard, when presented with words like “toothbrush”, such that the word “tooth” falls in the left visual field (and thus, is transmitted to the right cerebrum) and the word “brush” falls in the right field (and goes to the left hemisphere), when offered the opportunity to point to several words (i.e., hair, tooth, coat, brush, etc.), the left hand usually will point to the word viewed by the right cerebrum (i.e., tooth) and the right hand to the word viewed by the left hemisphere (i.e., brush). When offered a verbal choice, the speaking (usually the left) hemisphere will respond “brush” and will deny seeing the word “tooth.”

Overall, this indicates that the disconnected right and left cerebral hemispheres, although unable to communicate and directly share information, are nevertheless fully capable of independently generating and supporting mental activity (Bogen, 1969, 1979; Gazzaniga & LeDoux, 1978; Joseph, 1986b, 1988b; Levy, 1974, 1983; Sperry, 1982). Hence, in the right hemisphere we deal with a second form of awareness that accompanies in parallel what appears to be the “dominant” temporal-sequential, language dependent stream of consciousness in the left cerebrum.

Moreover, as has been demonstrated by Joseph, Sperry, Bogen, Levy, and colleagues, the isolated right cerebral hemisphere, like the left, is capable of self-awareness, can plan for the future, has goals and aspirations, likes and dislikes, social and political awareness, can purposefully initiate behavior, guide responses choices and emotional reactions, as well as recall and act upon certain desires, impulses situations or environmental events –without the aid, knowledge or active (reflective) participation of the left half of the brain.

RIGHT BRAIN PERVERSITY

In that the brain of the normal as well as “split-brain” patient maintains the neuroanatomy to support the presence of two psychic realms, it is surprising that a considerable degree of conflict does not arise during the course of everyday activity. Frequently (such as in the case of the “split-brain” patient, LB, described below), although isolated the right half of the brain is fully willing to assist the left in a myriad of activities. Presumably such difficulties do not occur because both minds, having once been joined, share the same goals and interests. However, common experience seems to argue otherwise, for even in the intact individual, psychic functioning often is plagued by conflict.

In its most subtle manifestations the disconnected right hemisphere may attempt to provide the left with clues when the left (speaking) hemisphere is called upon to describe or guess what type of stimulus has been secretly shown to the right (such as in a T-scope experiment). Because the corpus callosum has been severed transfer and information exchange is not otherwise possible. Hene, when a picture has been shown to the right and the left has been asked to guess, the right hemisphere may listen and then nod the head or clear the throat so as to give clues or indicate to the left cerebrum that it has guessed incorrectly. In one case the right hemisphere attempted to trace or write an answer on the back of the right hand (e.g. Sperry et al. 1979). For example, after the right hemisphere was selectively shown a picture of Hitler, and then asked to indicate their attitude toward it before verbally describing it, the patient signalled “thumbs down”.

EX: “That’s another ‘thumbs-down’?”

LB: “Guess I’m antisocial.”

EX: “Who is it?”

LB: “GI came to mind, I mean…” Subject at this point was seen to be tracing letters with the first finger of the left hand on the back of his right hand.

EX: “You’re writing with your left hand; let’s keep the cues out.”

LB: “Sorry about that.”

Nevertheless, the behavior of the right hemisphere is not always cooperative, and sometimes it engages in behavior which the left cerebrum finds objectionable, embarrassing, puzzling, mysterious, and/or quite frustrating. This is probably true for the normal as well as the “split-brain” individual.

For example, Akelaitis (1945, p. 597) describes two patients with complete corpus callosotomies who experienced extreme difficulties making the two halves of their bodies cooperate. “In tasks requiring bimanual activity the left hand would frequently perform oppositely to what she desired to do with the right hand. For example, she would be putting on clothes with her right and pulling them off with her left, opening a door or drawer with her right hand and simultaneously pushing it shut with the left. These uncontrollable acts made her increasingly irritated and depressed.”

Another patient experienced difficulty while shopping, the right hand would place something in the cart and the left hand would put it right back again. Both patients frequently experienced other difficulties as well . “I want to walk forward but something makes me go backward. ‘ A recently divorced male patient noted that on several occasions while walking about town he found himself forced to go some distance in another direction. Later (although his left hemisphere was not conscious of it at the time) it was discovered (by Dr. Akelaitis) that this diverted course, if continued, would have led him to his former wife’s new home.

Geschwind (1981) reports a callosal patient who complained that his left hand on several occasions suddenly struck his wife–much to the embarrassment of his left (speaking) hemisphere. In another case, a patient’s left hand attempted to choke the patient himself and had to be wrestled away (Goldstein; cited by Geschwind, 1981). Brion and Jedynak (cited by Geschwind, 1981) indicate that this type of independent left sided (right hemisphere) activity was common in their split-brain patients and termined it the “alien hand.”

In addition, Bogen (1979, p. 333) indicates that almost all of his “complete commissurotomy patients manifested some degree of intermanual conflict in the early postoperative period.” One patient, Rocky, experienced situations in which his hands were uncooperative; the right would button up a shirt and the left would follow right behind and undo the buttons. For years, he complained of difficulty getting his left leg to go in the direction he (or rather his left hemisphere) desired. Another patient often referred to the left half of her body as “my little sister” when she was complaining of its peculiar and independent actions.

A split-brain patient described by Dimond (1980, p. 434) reported that once when she had overslept her “left hand slapped me awake.” This same patient, in fact, complained of several instances where her left hand had acted violently. Similarly, Sweet (1945) describes a female patient whose left hand sometimes behaved oppositionally and in a fashion which on occasion was quite embarrassing.

Similar difficulties plagued a split-brain patient on whom I reported on (Joseph 1988b). Indeed, after callosotomy, this patient (2-C) frequently was confronted with situations in which his left extremities not only acted independently, but engaged in purposeful and complex behaviors –some of which he (or rather, his left hemisphere) found objectionable and annoying.

For example, 2-C complained of instances in which his left hand would perform socially inappropriate actions (e.g. attempting to strike a relative) and would act in a manner completely opposite to what he expressively intended, such as turn off the TV or change channels, even though he (or rather his left hemisphere) was enjoying the program. Once, after he had retrieved something from the refrigerator with his right hand, his left took the food, put it back on the shelf and retrieved a completely different item “Even though that’s not what I wanted to eat!” On at least one occasion, his left leg refused to continue “going for a walk” and would only allow him to return home.

In the laboratory, he often became quite angry with his left hand, he struck it and expressed hate for it. Several times, his left and right hands were observed to engage in actual physical struggles. For example, on one task both hands were stimulated simultaneously (while out of view) with either the same or two different textured materials (e.g., sandpaper to the right, velvet to the left), and the patient was required to point (with the left and right hands simultaneously) to an array of fabrics that were hanging in view on the left and right of the testing apparatus. However, at no time was he informed that two different fabrics were being applied.

After stimulation the patient would pull his hands out from inside the apparatus and point with the left to the fabric felt by the left and with the right to the fabric felt by the right.

Surprisingly, although his left hand (right hemisphere) responded correctly, his left hemisphere vocalized: “Thats wrong!” Repeatedly he reached over with his right hand and tried to force his left extremity to point to the fabric experienced by the right (although the left hand responded correctly! His left hemisphere didn’t know this, however.). His left hand refused to be moved and physically resisted being forced to point at anything different. In one instance a physical struggle ensued, the right grappling with the left.

Moreover, while 2-C was performing this (and other tasks), his left hemisphere made statements such as: “I hate this hand” or “This is so frustrating” and would strike his left hand with his right or punch his left arm. In these instances there could be little doubt that his right hemisphere was behaving with purposeful intent and understanding, whereas his left brain had absolutely no comprehension of why his left hand (right hemisphere) was behaving in this manner.

Why When Which

Symbols

Dreams about a boyfriend cheating on you are most likely–though not always–fear-based dreams. There may be a nagging fear eating away in your subconscious that is breaking through in a dream, or you may have fear of abandonment issues rooted in childhood that are affecting your dreams and this would then be a signal for you to get a handle on this problem before it grows into something that could hurt the relationship. Or it could be that you noticed inattentive behavior towards you by your boyfriend, while he has been spending less time with you and being cryptic when you ask him questions, so a warning flag in the form of a dream has appeared to help you become more aware and start dealing with this issue.

TEETH: My most popular requests for dream interpretation are by far, dreams about teeth falling out. Apparently this is quite disturbing to people who have this dream…they simply MUST know what it means! In my experience, a dream about one’s teeth falling out usually symbolizes that the dreamer is having a challenge getting their voice heard, or feelings acknowledged. This may be referring to their conversations with a particular person such as their significant other, boss, or friend; or can be generalized for people who are shy, to include almost everyone they come in contact with. The dreamer needs to brush up on conversational skills, believe in the value of their own opinion, learn how to be less intimidated by aggressive people, and become more assertive and make their voice heard. Once they do that, this dream (which is a common recurring dream) should evolve & show improvement…or disappear altogether.

Although most people I hear from seem to find the above interpretation of the teeth theme fits their situation, there have been a few who think it’s not quite right for them. I received the following email from a savvy visitor who eloquently shared with me what she believes the symbol means for her, and I think it’s so good that I want to share it with all of you. Dream symbols must be personalized for each individual person, so general interpretations don’t always fit the bill, like I’ve said repeatedly throughout this site. Please remember this, and remember to interpret your entire dream’s context and not just an isolated symbol.

PEOPLE: Every person that appears in a dream is supposed to represent an aspect of one’s Self, and not actually be about that other person at all; rather, it is a quality or characteristic about that person that your dream is focusing on, and how it applies to YOU. Try to think about what aspect(s) this could be. It can be something you admire and wish to emulate and incorporate into your own personality, or it could be a more negative characteristic that you may dislike intensely in your waking life, but which is telling you something about yourself and your beliefs, judgements, & attitude. It could be a call to alter your thinking in some manner, in order to be more open-minded and accepting of this aspect in their and your own personality, because it is hampering your spiritual growth & making life harder for yourself. The other person in your dream is always mirroring something back to you about YOURSELF. Try to discover what that something is, and go from there. Once you get it through your head that the other person’s appearance in your dream is NOT about them, but really about YOU, then you will get much more successful interpreting your own dreams. This takes constant reinforcing–I still find myself wanting to think it’s about that other person instead of me. The only exception I know of is if the dream is precognitive.

FLYING: usually represents freedom from the physical body, as we experience in sleep & while dreaming where we don’t use our physical bodies but instead use our mental & spiritual bodies to experience our dreams. It’s one of the first things people attempt to do when they gain control of their dreams and start lucid dreaming. Everybody seems to have a natural inclination to want to fly, unless that is changed by a fear of flying due to a frightening incident in their waking lives. Flying = freedom; either a desire for freedom, an “escape” from restraints in your physical life (like a mini-vacation for the mind) or any number of possibilities. Tie it in with the context of your dream…what were you doing in your dream besides flying? How did it make you feel? etc. Also, the type of flying I’m referring to, here, is the person flying on their own without an airplane or any aircraft at all. That would be a different symbol dealing with spiritual awareness, among other things.

SCHOOL : This type of dream relates to your current “lesson in life,” and if you learn how to interpret it, you’ll find out how you are progressing…yes, folks, you’re still taking tests and getting graded! Our “true selves” are our souls, and not our physical bodies. You are a spirit/soul having a physical dream, not the other way around. Ever feel like your life is like a play, and you are acting out some role that you don’t even understand, even surprising yourself with your actions sometimes? Bingo! When we sleep, that proverbial “Veil of Forgetfulness” that prevents us from “cheating on the test” is lifted, and we are shown what type of progress we are making (or, *GULP*, not making) and given guidance on what to do next. We always have free will in our waking physical lives, though, and if we stubbornly refuse to finish our tests, then we have that right–but we are doomed to repeat it until we pass it; and each time we turn away from it, the next time it will be more unpleasant until finally we are forced to acknowledge it’s importance for our growth. The things we consider vitally important in our waking physical lives are not nearly as important as the TRUE reason we are here, which is to overcome our shortcomings so that we may get closer to our Source/God/Higher Power. To avoid learning the lesson is like forcing your soul to a fate similar to the mythical greek god named Sisyphus (thanks, Leah!) who was doomed to keep rolling a boulder uphill for eternity, only to watch it roll back down & have to repeat the same tedious hard labor again & again. That sounds like school to me! So pay heed to the messages in dreams about schools, and you may advance faster. Do you *really* want to repeat kindergarten AGAIN?

CAR or VEHICLE: This is supposed to symbolize you in your waking life, in your physical body. Your physical body is used by the soul pretty much like we use a car…it’s driven for a while and we give it gas/nourishment & repairs as needed until it stops running, and then we go back home. Pay attention to your car, which symbolizes your VESSEL/physical body. Are you behind the wheel, or is someone else in control? You want to be in charge of your life, naturally. What is the color & condition of this vehicle? Do you seem to be driving it the right way, on a safe road in good condition, or is the road rocky, winding, or suddenly ends at a cliff? That would signal you need redirection. The bigger the vehicle, the more energy you may be successfully using for your daily lessons, depending on the context of your dream. Note all clues as to how you are faring, and make adjustments accordingly.

HOUSE: You drive a car, but typically you LIVE in a house/apartment. Dreams about a HOUSE symbolize a larger aspect of your Self, and the aspects of self which make the whole. Each room is said to symbolize a different aspect of your Self; for example:

AN ATTIC symbolizes your Higher Self, and your spiritual development & progress. Look at other symbols in the attic of your dream, and try to evaluate what they mean. Also pay attention to the feeling you experience in your dream…is it pensive, enlightening or what, exactly? All these things are clues for you.

A BATHROOM would symbolize the need for cleansing/purging/elimination of something in your life that isn’t quite working, or that has served it’s purpose and now it’s time to move on.

A KITCHEN would symbolize the need or act of supplying nourishment or food for the body/mind/soul…whatever is currently “cooking” or developing in your life. If the food is plentiful, you have what you need. If the cupboard is bare, time to go shopping for new nourishment, and you need to figure out what is needed for that “shopping list.”

A DINING ROOM is similar to the kitchen, but has more to do with immediate needs for supplying & utilizing nourishment, and less with the preparation or taking stock of those needs.

THE MAIN ROOM or LIVING ROOM symbolizes your daily interactions with others, and often you will have other people appearing in your dreams in this room. Remember, they represent aspects of YOUR Self, and not themselves. (See PEOPLE, above)

THE UPSTAIRS symbolizes your spiritual awareness aspect of self, or the Higher Self that holds all the keys or knowledge to this life’s role you are acting out, and always has your higher good looked after, no matter how it might seem otherwise.

THE DOWNSTAIRS/BASEMENT symbolizes your subconscious mind aspect of Self, which deals with habits, old coping skills, automation, ego. That’s usually the part of our Selves that makes us feel “torn” between knowing we should do one thing, but inexplicably ending up doing the opposite. (Don’t you HATE that??) Old belief patterns & fears have to be corrected, if that is the case. Tackle & overcome it, and you will feel much more peaceful about your life.

THE GROUND FLOOR of a house represents your daily agenda; what’s currently going on in your life.

REVISITING OLD HOUSES FROM CHILDHOOD OR EARLIER TIMES: This points to issues that probably are resurfacing in your current life, and need to be looked at, analyzed, and healed so you can move forward and not look back. If you find yourself repeating the same old tired mistakes, or dealing with the same old tired fears, chances are you will have this dream.

A HALLWAY symbolizes that you have reached an area that is necessary to journey through in order to get to the other side, and it may be a narrow path that has to be traversed with care and awareness. If you have that “closed in, claustrophobic feeling” then you need to expand your awareness/open your mind to more possibilities for completing this phase of your journey.

A PORCH symbolizes perhaps a metaphor of being undecided, such as the saying, “I’m still on the porch on that decision.” It could be symbolic of being contemplative, or uncommitted or withdrawn. It could be something entirely different such as being on the threshold of a new sense or an extension of self. It depends on the entire context of the dream. Back or Front Porch? Screened-in or open? Messy or neat? Sparse or furnished? All these details add to the overall symbolism.

TORNADO: this symbol points to emotional turmoil, as in a “whirlwind of emotions”; and/or rapid or sudden changes in your life. It is a sign to “get a grip” on what is possibly spinning out of control & deal more effectively with your emotions. Meditation and finding some private “think time” for yourself would be a good idea.

TELEPHONE: This is considered a “message” symbol and you are to pay close attention to it. Are you the one doing the calling, or being called? Are you having difficulty with the phone in some way, or is someone annoying or threatening as they talk; can you not hear anyone on the line…what is said and who says it? All this needs to be factored in together within the full context of the dream. Do look at this symbol closely. Consider it your subconscious saying, “HELLOOOOO!?!”

BABY & or PREGNANCY: newness or creation in your life; a new aspect of self is being formed and coming into being! Or you may just be worried to death about that unprotected sex you had a few weeks ago and will be dreaming next about contracting AIDS, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Chlamydia and numerous other STD’s so your subconscious is hammering at you for being stupid. Hopefully it’s the first symbol. Did you know that 63% of these infections occur in persons under age 25? But, I digress.